“What a blowhard,” Jasper muttered.
“Beg your pardon?” Quickel fixed a pointed look on Jasper.
Jasper waved his hand in imitation of the way Quickel had dismissed Hayden.
The mayor’s cheeks turned red, and he cleared his throat. “Mr.Castillo, as the owner of the Sunshine Diner, do you have anything to contribute?”
Huh?Anita frowned, her eyes shifting from Tanner to Quickel. “Um, Mr.Quickel,” she said.
“Is there a problem, Ms.Bedford?” Quickel tapped on his pad of paper with the end of his pen.
She couldn’t believe he’d made such a simple mistake, considering he was the mayor and had been going to Sunshine for ages. Before she could stop herself, she said, “Tanner is theassistantmanager of the diner, remember? George is the owner.”
The entire room went silent. Anita froze. No one was looking at her, not even Jasper. When she turned to the mayor, he had a smirk on his face.
“It seems you’re out of the loop, Ms. Bedford. Mr. Castillo recently acquired the diner.”
“‘Acquired’?”
“I bought the diner, Anita.”
She fell against the chair back, unable to speak. Tanner wasn’t looking at her now. Instead, his attention was directed at Quickel.
“Mr.Castillo, you have the floor.”
Tanner addressed the mayor, his expression now impassive, his tone calm. “I want to add my support to Hayden’s proposal of reinstating the Too Darn Hot Parade.”
“Me too,” Sophie said.
“Y’all got my vote,” Rusty drawled. “I always have a bunch of fun at the parade. Have since I was knee high to a grasshopper.”
“And y’all can have fun again,” the mayor said, his brow flattening. “In two to three years.”
The room again went silent. Officer Hendricks had his head down. Sophie’s arms were crossed over her chest, her simple wedding band glinting under the lights. She had married the Maple Falls football coach, Joe Johnson, last summer. Rusty was giving Quickel the stink eye, although the mayor seemed oblivious.
Quickel smiled. “Well, since I pride myself on being a man of compromise, we’ll table the topic for the next meeting.”
“But that’s in June,” Hayden pointed out. “It will be too late to plan anything.”
“And you tabled it last month.” Sophie glared at Quickel.
“Next meeting, Mr. Price.” His gaze scanned the room,landing briefly on every single person there, including Jasper. “I realize a few of you are new business owners, so I’m obliged to let you know that we run things a certain way around here.”
“You mean your way?” Sophie frowned. “I’m not a new business owner, and I’ve been to these meetings for years, Mayor. You seem to kick the can down the road a lot.”
“Like a regular politician,” Jasper muttered.
The mayor looked stunned, then regained his composure. “You’re free to look at our budget anytime you’d like, Mrs.Johnson,” he said. “We’re stretched thin as it is. Or would you like to cut our police-force hours in order to make your little parade happen? Maybe we can suspend trash pickup for the summer? Or that pothole in the middle of Main Street can wait so the elementary school children can trip over it when they march?”
“But I just said that there’s no expense involved,” Hayden groused.
Quickel ignored him. “The next order of business is—”
At that point everyone started talking at once, except for Anita and Tanner. They stared at each other as the rest of the room verbally duked it out. She tried to figure out his expression, but it was completely blank.
He’d bought the diner and hadn’t told her? She couldn’t believe it.
“Excuse me,” Jared said, raising his voice enough that Anita heard him, although no one else seemed to. “Hey!”
